About FoodMayhem

In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.

I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!

Before I get to reviewing the recipes where I will do my best to be objective, you should know that I cannot be completely objective about Carol. She is my friend and mentor. One day I will write a post all about her when I can gather up all the words I need to express my admiration, gratitude, and love. For this book, all you need to know is that she is an award winning (IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award and James Beard Award) cookbook author , professionally trained nutritionist, and a type 2 diabetic.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

After roasting that duck the other night, we were left with excess duck fat, which we of course saved. I decided to make turkey meatballs, fried in the duck fat, for a nice twist. You won’t really taste definable duck fat, but I do think it adds to the flavor of this dish. On a separate note, I usually brunois carrots for my red sauces, because carrots add a natural sweetness. I was feeling lazy today so I decided to try shredding the carrots on a box grater and the result was great. I may end up doing it the lazy way more often.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

I wanted to end with a classic pasta dish so that it would satisfy what anyone would imagine as a pasta dinner. You can’t go wrong with meat sauce! We happened to have a large amount of very lean sliced beef so Lon got to play with our new grinder attachment. Because it was so lean, I added pancetta to this recipe but I still think you should use fattier meat. I got to make mushrooms since Lon wasn’t going to be home but I still chose to make it a mushroom topping as opposed to mushrooms in the sauce because I figured we would have left-overs, and Lon would want to eat it.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

We had Martin and Melissa over for dinner last night and they loved my Oxtail and Linguini. Good thing I wrote down the recipe for my Oxtail Sauce. Four people almost finished the entire pot! I served it with linguine but it would be wonderful with pappardelle or fettuccine as well.

Monday, April 16, 2007

This weather is ridiculous for mid-April. I still find myself avoiding errands and missing several gym classes. Instead of the usual spring salads and sidewalk cafe lunches, I’m sitting at home thinking about soup and since it’s raining, I’m not willing to go buy any ingredients.

Regretfully, I did not write anything down while I was making this soup since I was just throwing stuff from my fridge in, but it came out tasting very good, looking very attractive (due to the bright purples, reds, and oranges), and actually being very healthy.

This is an estimated recipe:

4 cups chicken stock

1 cube chicken bouillon

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 cup sliced onion

2 small carrots, cut in chunks

1/2 small red cabbage cut in chunks

1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes

1 cup water, if needed

dried oregano and black pepper

Place first 5 ingredients in a 3 1/2 Quart pot. Cook on high until it boils. Add red cabbage and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the canned diced tomato and water (if needed). Sprinkle with dried oregano and black pepper and simmer for another 15 minutes. Simple huh?

While I was drinking the soup, I marveled at how pretty it was and how full of vitamins and antioxidants it is (beta-carotene, Vitamin A, lycopene, and more). If you’re interested in the specific health benefits of the major ingredients, here are some links: